Confined to a wheelchair, Olive, 87, is a resident of closure-threatened Wilton House care home in Parkside Road.

Last night Olive and a group of fellow

residents and their relatives took the battle to stop the home being shut to the steps of the Civic Centre.

Olive, who finds it difficult to speak and who's been in the home for three years, managed to persuade carers at Wilton House to allow her to join the fight - it meant braving a chilly evening and struggling to the town centre in a specially adapted wheelchair-carrying taxi.

Kay Everett, who chairs Age Concern Berkshire, is spearheading the campaign to save Wilton House. She leaked details of Reading Borough Council's plans months before they were due to be released and said Olive felt as strongly as the other 37 people living at Wilton House - she doesn't want to leave her home.

Ms Everett said: "Olive rarely goes out. She is a very frail lady, but she knows what's going on and she was determined to show how strongly she and everyone else feels about closing her home. She insisted on being there, despite her weakness and the fact she's in a wheelchair. This is how strongly people at the home feel.

"Wilton House is a village - it's a community. If they close it many of these people will be split up. They will be utterly devastated. This is no way to treat elderly people."

After a placard-waving demonstration by more than 30 protesters outside Reading Borough Council offices, Ms Everett tabled a question to the full council meeting.

The council says demand for places at establishments such as Wilton House has been reduced because of the successful policy of helping pensioners retain their independence and live in their own homes.

Social services chiefs also say the home's rooms are too small and will not meet new Government regulations on floor space due to be implemented in the summer.

It plans to move the people of Wilton House to other homes across the town.

When details of the closure were leaked to the Evening Post last year, the council promised a full consultation with pensioners' working parties, Age Concern, residents and relatives. But Ms Everett believes the council will steamroll through the plans and she says there has been little consultation.

She said: "The only consultation we've had was a presentation from social services, which basically involved them telling us what they were going to do.

"At one meeting we had, I was even told by the chairman to shut up. That's not consultation. The fact is, had I not leaked this out, they would have gone through with it and told people at the last minute."

Last night, Ms Everett asked the lead councillor for social services and health, Cllr Pete Ruhemann, to tear up plans to shut Wilton House.

She also asked him if the alternative homes earmarked to take people from Wilton House would be refurbished before the home closed.

Cllr Ruhemann told Ms Everett: "The council has not taken the decision to close Wilton House, although the council's cabinet agreed in January 2002 to consult on a proposal from the director of social services and housing."

He said Wilton House did not meet the new Care Home Standards set by the Government and in response to whether alternative homes would be done up before closure, he said the council had a five-year programme to carry out work.

Ms Everett said: "I was not satisfied with these answers. I believe the council plans, and has always planned, to close Wilton House.

"They are prepared to ignore the feelings, upset and anger expressed by people such as Olive."

Geoff Chivers, director of Age Concern Berkshire, said: "Olive has no family and has repeatedly asked that we support her.

"I have acted as a representative at meetings for the residents because I believe they've been misinformed by the council."